Coming into the sectional, most observers -- including us -- would've forecast a matchup between New Palestine and Pendleton Heights for the championship.
That's exactly what will be happening next Friday night.
#5 Pendleton Heights (10-1) will visit #1 New Palestine (11-0) for a 7 p.m. kickoff. Our HancockCountySports.com broadcast will begin at 6:30.
You can listen to our archived broadcast of New Palestine's 27-14 victory over Delta in a great matchup on the Eagles' turf. Delta jumped ahead early 14-0 when Ozzie Mann orchestrated a 62-yard drive after the opening kickoff, which Landon Lambert capped off with a 4-yard run. After a fumble two plays later, Mann carried in from 5 yards out after a short drive, giving Delta a 14-0 lead with four minutes left in the opening quarter.
Things didn't seem to be going well for the Dragons -- trailing by two scores, they faced third-and-15 from their own 29, and QB Connor Simmons was under heavy duress. He managed to escape a sack, roll out to the left and find sophomore Tyler Walden wide open at the 50. Walden caught the ball and dashed all the way across the field -- picking up blockers along the way -- before spinning across the pylon and into the end zone.
That play got the Dragons going. On the next drive, Simmons hit Walden for a 33-yard gain to the 11, which set up a TD pass to Josh Penley that cut the Delta lead to one after a blocked extra point early in the second.
Simmons-to-Penley would be a familiar refrain. They connected three times for 55 yards -- and all three were for TDs. The second came after a fumble recovered at midfield with 1:15 left in the half. The Dragons needed just 52 seconds for Simmons and Penley to connect from 20 yards out to make it a 20-14 game. NP scored on the first drive of the second half -- using Austin Monday to set up a 24-yard TD pass to Penley.
Simmons completed 12-of-23 for 235 yards and four TDs. He broke several school records tonight -- becoming the first Dragon to reach 3,000 passing yards for his career (he's now at 3,014) -- and passed Mark Shepler's 24-year-old career TD pass record of 35, with his 38th TD pass tonight.
Monday had a big second half -- he finished with 86 yards on 19 carries -- including 76 yards on 15 touches in the second half. The Dragons came out wanting to establish the running game in the second half and shortened the contest -- each team had only three possessions in the half, and the Dragons' defense stopped Delta in NP territory three straight times to preserve a 27-14 lead and turn it into a 27-14 victory.
Meanwhile, Pendleton Heights got there with a convincing 45-14 victory over Greenfield-Central. The Cougars drew first blood -- thanks to a long return by Derek Conley that set up an early TD -- but PH then scored 45 straight points. Mitch Patishall threw for 200+ yards, Jacob Lyons and Jon Furrow had big rushing games again.
So, NP is 11-0. PH is 10-1 -- with the only loss to the Dragons on the same field where they'll play next week. The only loss between either team is NP's 34-21 victory over PH all the way back in Week 3. PH hasn't scored less than 30 points since.
G-C's season completes with a 6-5 record -- the Cougars' second straight winning season. The last time G-C achieved that feat was 1973-75 -- an era that included two state runner-up finishes.
Also in the HHC
We're down to two conference teams, as Yorktown fell to Bellmont tonight on the road 22-7, ending the Tigers' season at 6-5.
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